Category Archives: Wellness Wednesday

Wellness Wednesday 2015-2

Second week and I already almost forgot to post.

My hard work has paid off and I’m down 4.4 pounds since January 5. I’ve been doing my wii fit, counting my calories and incorporating healthy habits. I’ve even been drinking water!

There are already a few things that I can see I’m going to have to work on if this is all going to be sustainable.

First, I think I’m going to need a second 1/2 cup measure. I feel like I’m constantly washing mine because so much of what I eat is measured in 1/2 cup increments. I’m sort of sick of looking at that stupid cup. I suppose soon enough I’ll better be able to eyeball what a 1/2 cup of stuff looks like. Maybe I won’t get a second one. You all know how much I hate owning stuff. Almost as much as I hate washing stuff.

I’ve been eating a salad with chicken almost every day for lunch. I don’t mind eating the same thing every day. In fact, it kind of makes things easier because I know what my calories will be, I have my trusty 1/2 cup measure at the ready, and I actually find it filling. My 250 calorie meal is reasonable and I can have a yogurt and a piece of fruit later in the day so I can make it until dinner. Here’s the problem: I HATE cutting up salads. The amount of effort that goes into compiling one meal is downright ridiculous. As it is I buy bagged lettuce and grape tomatoes and mini cucumbers, all so that I can cut up that much less. I mean, how much more can I cut out of this process? I’m trying to appreciate the (very few) calories I must be burning in this process, but I’m still getting sort of bitter at the salad. Stupid salad. It doesn’t even have cheese on it.

Speaking of cheese, remember how I said I wasn’t going to eat cheese? Yeah, that didn’t work. Cheese is delicious. I’m measuring it and eating single servings and I’m hoping I can remain in control.

Speaking of remaining in control, my cheat day got a bit out of hand last week. One pint of ice cream. All at once. Bad. Bad bad bad. So yummy though. Whatever. It happened and I’m shaking it off but I can’t make a habit out of that. I really want my cheat days to be more about not having to log everything in or measure every portion. It isn’t supposed to be about eating everything in sight.

I haven’t been at this long enough to say I have new habits. Not even close. But I saw enough weight loss to keep going. I plan to keep it up.

Until next week…

Featured image credit: http://uncrate.com/stuff/fitbit-aria-wi-fi-smart-scale/

Wellness Wednesday 2015-1

I decided to resurrect my Wellness Wednesday series in the hopes that doing so will provide me with some ongoing accountability. I’ll be totally honest with you though. If I start to slip, I’ll probably just stop doing the posts. I realize that totally defeats the purpose, but my blog, my rules.

I’m not going to sit here and fat shame myself. I don’t want to whine that I’m so fat and ugly and nothing fits and so on. What I am going to do is put some facts out there.

As of January 5, I weighed 165 pounds. This is the most I’ve ever weighed even when I was pregnant. I have now surpassed my weight on the day I gave birth 8 years ago. I know we’re not supposed to talk about what we weigh, but in the spirit of only presenting information without judgement, I am giving an actual number. There it is: 165.

I am just under 5 feet tall, but let’s use measurements for someone who actually IS 5 feet tall. I like round numbers and I’m almost there and I feel like it’s better than rounding my height down. The ideal weight for someone who is 5 feet tall is between 95 and 128 pounds. I haven’t been 95 pounds since I was a senior in high school, so that seems a bit unrealistic. When I was my healthiest as an adult, right before I got pregnant in early 2006, I weighed 128. I felt good but like 5-10 more pounds would be ideal. Given those facts, my goal weight is 125. It’s also another round number.

To reach my goal, I need to lose 40 pounds. Losing 50 or 60 would not make me unhealthy though it may be less than realistic. I’m going to stick with the 40 and see how I feel when I get there.

Here are the action steps I’m planning to use for at least the first month:

1. Use MyFitnessPal to track calories and exercise.

2. Exercise at least 30 minutes per day at least 5 days per week. It doesn’t have to be strenuous, but it has to happen.

3. No cheese (because I tend to binge on it when I eat it) and no take-out (except January 24, the day of my son’s birthday party).

That’s it. No food is off-limit if I can fit it into my calorie budget and the budget helps me to make better choices. Exercising pads the budget. Take-out always ends badly.

It’s not just about the weight. I feel like crap almost all the time. My sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits are making me miserable and it’s time to change things. I need a measurable goal for this to work. “Feeling better” isn’t going to be enough. I will feel better if I weigh less because the only way to weigh less is the eat better and exercise. I hate to focus on numbers and all that but going by how my clothes feel isn’t a good measure (unless I only wear one outfit indefinitely) and my level of fatigue or shortness of breath or whatever else isn’t reliable since so many other factors impact perception.

Weight is measurable. Scales don’t lie. I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s what will motivate me.

I’ve been doing well since Monday (yes, I’m aware it’s not even 3 full days yet) but I’m tired and cranky. I was going to try to end this on a positive note but, well, I don’t have one right now. My disposition probably has more to do with the weather and my current hormonal state than my food (because I have been eating). I look forward to being over the transitional hump that one must go through to build good habits because this transitional hump sucks.

Until next week…

 

Featured image credit: http://uncrate.com/stuff/fitbit-aria-wi-fi-smart-scale/

Wellness Wednesday: RIP Edition.

Well, it looks like Wellness Wednesdays are going down and for a variety of reasons.

1. How often can you hear me say I wish I ate better/exercised more/took care of myself and then not do any of those things?

2. Committing to write on the same topic every week feels more like being backed into a corner and less like fun. And blogging is supposed to be fun right?

3. I was going to miss another week this week, so I might as well just pull the plug instead.

4. The reason I was going to miss this week? I’m unwell! Ha. How funny is that?

(I’m not dying or anything, I just have a very bad headache.)

So why am I writing a post to say I’m not going to write a post? Because I like closure. And in case anyone says, “Hey, what happened to your wellness thing?” then I can just say, “I totally blogged about killing it. Did you miss that riveting post?”

It doesn’t mean I’m giving up on my well-being and I’ll likely still write about it from time to time, but from week to week? Still fat, still eating pizza, still not exercising enough, blah, blah, blah.

That’s it. Farewell Wellness Wednesday. It’s been real.

 

Wellness Wednesday Week 8

I think it’s week 8.  It is right? Anyone have a calendar handy?

I missed last week. No one complained. As a result I shall ponder the fate of this feature.

Last Wednesday night I was preparing to go to a conference. Remember that 10 day mega diet I was on to try to drop massive weight before I left? Yeah, it didn’t really work out. I was super careful with food for 8 of the 10 days, but there was no exercise. Unless stressing and running around packing and doing laundry counts.  Or running up and down the stairs from my bedroom to the full length mirror to see if my outfits were cute enough.

While away, I drank way too much coffee and soda and didn’t exactly eat well.  I didn’t eat too much, but many of my choices weren’t so great. Luckily I didn’t gain too much weight while I was gone. I brought my workout stuff to the conference, but I couldn’t put my sneakers on because I decided to tattoo my foot. I didn’t plan it that way, but I’m not really complaining about it either.

Here are my stats as of the end of September.

  • Miles walked/run this year: 73.59
  • Miles walked/run in September: 16.56
  • 18 of 30 days I cooked at home. Of the 12 I didn’t, 5 were when I was travelling. So not great, but not bad either, considering.
  • I have no clue how many days I exercised. I think about 8-10.
  • Weight lost since starting all this: 6.8 pounds.
  • I totally bailed on my crunch and jumping jack challenges.
I’m easing back into things this month. By “easing back” I mean that I ate bread and butter before dinner because I was starving. And I ate an ice cream sandwich after lunch because I wanted to.  Maybe I’ll walk tomorrow. Maybe I won’t. I know for a lot of people exercising helps them alleviate stress, but for me, adding exercise into a super full day stresses me out.  So we’ll just see what happens.
I feel like I’m beating to death the theme of accepting myself for who I am, shortcomings and all, but it’s the truth. There was a time when I would have traveled and done even worse with my diet. It doesn’t really look like I did well, but I know how much worse it could have been.
Maybe I won’t do this weekly and I’ll change it to a monthly thing. I’ll have to give it some thought.
For now though, I’m going to go make some cheeseless tacos and veggies for dinner, even though I’d really rather order Chinese.